The More, More, Morse! Expertease

Our audience tonight is composed mostly of... And Clare Sera, that's your... Naturally. And since you specialize in... I thought we could probe your... Pardon? You're listening to Expertise, spelled wrong, the podcast where the world's most expert experts discuss their areas of expertise expertly. Each podcasode of Expertise brings you the recognized expert in the field, whatever the field happens to be, and whether or not that expert actually knows anything about it. When it comes to oddly specific expertises you probably never thought you needed to know more about, we are the experts.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, podcast listeners from around the globe, I'm your host Danno Sullivan, and the podcast is Expertise, where we tease you with the experts who tease you with their knowledge. My guest today is Morse code expert Clare Sera. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me today. I had to dash in from Dot's Cupcakes across the street. Clare, for our listeners who may not know the little jape that you're making with your wordplay, dash and dot are... They are the alphabet of the Morse code. So the Morse code was used by...

Jimmy Morse. Jimmy Morse and Bill Morse, the Morse brothers, who invented a code for long distance communications at the turn of the industrial age. Is that about succinct? That is quite succinct, although that's not the whole story, of course. I know. That's why we have an expert on the podcast today. Oh my gosh. So when Jimmy and Billy Morse were brothers, they were separated. Okay. So when they were brothers, it sort of implies that there was a time when they were not brothers. I do want to focus on the technology, but I'm fascinated at the idea of this relationship.

They were brothers for over half of their life. So something really big must have happened to tear two brothers apart from actual brotherhood. Well, it was a rough and tumble time in the... The 1840s or so? Yeah, the American pre and post revolution. The post revolution was what led to telegraph posts. Now, part of the challenge, of course, America is vast. Vast. There are huge tracts of land across the United States, separating state from state from state. I would say that really pretty much anywhere there's land, there is separation. But I see what your point is. Bigger than usual here in the United States.

Well, and America is famous for its separation of land and state. Yes, it's right there in our Constitution, for God's sake. And that's what has kept it a brotherhood. But brothers, like anyone, Claire, need to communicate, don't they? Well, if they don't, they lose their brotherhood, Dano. You see, that's how this whole mess started. So, you know, the great iron railway that crossed this magnificent land was responsible for the bringing together of families and the tearing apart of families. And that's what happened to young Jimmy and young Bill Morse.

The Morse family were one of the brave folks to make the great trek on the Iron Horse. The Iron Horse across America. That's right. From east to west. And unfortunately, when they got there, they realized that James Morse was missing. They had Billy, but they did not have Jimmy. Oh, but I do know, Claire, that these two twin brothers had that magical, mysterious communication that twins often have. That you hear and read so much about. A secret language. And these two were torn apart and yet not separated. That's right. Is this what led them to the code? That is exactly what led them to the code, Dano. It's a very personal story. We think that this code was designed to help corporations or to help big business, you know, communicate across the way.

No, this was a code between brothers. As children in the womb, they had dashed and dotted each other. So the dashes and dots of the Morse code, those are the electronic beeps that are transmitted across wires and then translated into regular human speech or human language. Right. Well, into the alphabet, into the words that we would use. The beauty of Morse code, of course, it is an international language if you speak English. So many people associate the invention of Morse code with Samuel F. B. Morse. Samuel Morse was a stickler, you know. He put the F in FB, in my opinion, because Jimmy and Billy just wanted communication for each other, for the world.

Samuel Morse wanted to have created something that he could put his name on and that people would only give strict news with. You couldn't send riddles by Morse code. He wouldn't allow it. What's trialing? You set me up. Dash, dash. Who's there? Dot. Dot who? Dot who's at the door again? You see, I mean, come on. If we had been sharing that across our nation, I think we would have avoided at least three wars. I have the opposite view, Claire. I see why F. B. Morse became such a stick in the mud about this stuff. You know, comedy does not translate into code that way.

Well, there is a code amongst comedy. So many people associate the invention of Morse code with Samuel Morse. Yeah. He was responsible largely for the actual instrument, the telegraph. He did invent the telegraph. So really, one is no good without the other. What's the point of a telegraph without a code or a code without a telegraph? Well, and that's the thing. I mean, Jimmy and Billy were just two boys who wanted to be reunited. And they had been, they'd been hitting anything, like Jimmy over in, he'd fallen off in Tennessee. Yep, yep. And William had made it all the way to Colorado. And, you know, they had found ways to, there are, there are aquifers.

Which can transmit electricity. Exactly. And so these boys were communicating. So by dipping a toe in and using that almost mysterious, magical communications capability that we know twins to have. Yes, exactly. Well, that's where Thomas Edison enters the picture, isn't it? That's exactly right. Until Edison came along, the Morse code telegraphy of the time was lightning writing in the sky. It was ephemeral. I mean, a lot of folks blame Thomas Edison for the death of James Morse. Oh, for God's sake. I thought James Morse choked to death on his own vomit in a Paris hotel room. No, no, that's James Morrison.

Yes. Yeah. No. Yeah. Yeah. Who was named after Jimmy Morse? Oh, with just a slightly longer last name. James Morse's son. Right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Which you might recognize in some of his songs. Come on, come on, come on, come on now. Me baby, can't you see? Yeah. But part of the problem was when they were communicating with their dashes and dots simply by aquifer across this great nation. Along comes Thomas Edison inviting electricity. Yeah. Electricity and water do not match. They go together in a purely dangerous way. They do. We all know, you know, don't take a toaster into the bathtub.

Well. But how do we learn that, Claire? Somebody had to make that discovery. Yeah. And that to me was the genius of Edison. That was a man willing to slip off the bathrobe in public and step into a tub with the forerunner of the electric toaster. Right. Yes. And there was no electrical cording for a toaster. It was battery operated. So the jolt that he received was indicative of the danger without actually causing a toasted Thomas, as it's come to be known. I personally, I try not to judge the history that I'm studying. But yes, a toasted Thomas. Nobody wants that.

I feel that little Jimmy Morris put it together that perhaps this electricity that Thomas Edison was flaunting about town along with his little Thomas in a bathtub could actually help him. Do you know that he and his brother already had this language of dots and dashes that travels across the waters. Magical ephemeral communication that we know twins to have. Again, they were very masculine boys. I keep using the word ephemeral and you keep misunderstanding it. Is it two dots or three dashes? I'm spelling it with three dashes. My mistake. Yeah. Almost a Morse pun. Sorry.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, if maybe if you could put in the show notes that my the book that I have written, Morse, Morris, Morrison, Morris less. And it tells the story of little Jimmy and little Billy. They were reunited as brothers. Oh, at last. And, you know, the wonderful thing about Morse code clear is that the the emotional state of the cinder really can come through those dots and dashes. Yes. And I'm guessing that Billy was able to feel the love in those dashes as well as to detect the humor, because, you know, a good joke really relies on timing.

Yeah. And what is Morse code, if not timing? Timing. It is all about timing. Let me try one on you real quick. Now, you see, without the pause between those two dots. That's the timing. That's the difference between tragedy and comedy, you know, is time plus two dashes. Plus two dashes. Claire, any last message before signing off? Oh, interesting. Claire is signaling to me that instead of Morse code, she'd rather sign off using the waving flags of semaphore. I can just make out through the binoculars. Thanks for having me on the shop. No, no. Now she's she's waving wildly.

Not on the shop, on the shop. That's not a P, you idiot. It is a W. Oh, right. It's a W. Thanks for having me on the show. Got it. Claire, it was great having you here and you are always welcome back on the shop. Anytime. The Expertise, spelled wrong, podcast is free and like the Amish, all are welcome. Be sure to sign up for our email announcements at funnypodcast.co and follow us in your favourite podcast app, like the expert podcast listener we know you are. Bye.